Means of Ascent (102 page)

“By custom”
:
DMN
, Sept. 14.
Poll of executive committee;
“We were behind”
:
Clark, Connally interviews.
Confident front:
FWS-T, State Observer
, Sept. 13.
“Comfortable majority”
:
State Observer
, Sept. 13.
“Just one vote”
:
Clark interview.
“Wild”
:
Brown interview.
“Frantic, but orderly”
:
Connally interview.
Clark and Ramsey;
“Herman Brown”
:
Oltorf interview.
Sending plane for three members:
Groce OH.
“The longest night”
:
Clark interview.

Sneed’s proxy:
FWS-T, HC
, Sept. 13;
DMN
, Sept. 14.
Johnson and Stevenson in ballroom:
FWS-T
, Sept. 13.

“Canvassing subcommittee”
:
For descriptions of the meetings and votes of the canvassing subcommittee, the full executive committee and the full convention, see note above, “Democratic Convention.”

Hearing in Alice:
Matthews, pp. 101–8; Rowe, Jones, Weatherly interviews.
CCC-T, Brownsville Herald
, Sept. 14.
Tarleton stalling:
Matthews, p. 106. Weatherly says, “You could tell Dudley was just stalling for time, and was waiting for something.”
“Of which courts”
:
Texas Jurisprudence
, quoted in Matthews, p. 105.
“No parallel”
:
Matthews, quoted in Kahl, p. 138;
FWS-T
, Sept. 13.
Parr’s arrival in court:
CCC-T
, Sept. 14; Matthews, p. 104; Rowe interview.
“Stopped short”
:
CCC-T
, Sept. 14. “Too late”: Matthews, quoted in
HP
, Sept. 14.
“I am not saying”
;
wouldn’t interfere: Broeter, quoted in
CCC-T
, Sept. 14.
“In the face of the power”
:
Matthews, p. 106.

Canvassing subcommittee; Executive committee meetings:
See note above, “Democratic Convention.”
“Question of the correct”
:
Albert Sidney Johnston, quoted in
DMN
, Sept. 14.
“Would be violating”
:
Francis, quoted in
DMN
, Sept.
14.
“A tie”
:
Clark interview.
“The whole atmosphere”
:
Calvert.
“The issue”
:
Small, quoted in
DMN, HP
, Sept. 14.
Cofer, Francis arguments:
FWS-T
, Sept. 14.

“I believed”
;
“Announce the results now”
:
Mrs. Darbrandt; Johnson, quoted in
FWS-T
, Sept. 14.
Finding Gibson:
Connally interview. And see
FWS-T, HP
, Sept. 14.

Deal consummated:
AA-S
, Sept. 12–13;
CCC-T, FWS-T
, Sept. 14, 15;
State Observer
, Sept. 20; Long, quoted in Miller, p. 130; Dugger, pp. 332–33.

“AS TARRANT GOES”
:
HP
, Sept. 15.
“Helped us”
:
Eckhardt, quoted in Sherrill, “Texan vs. Big Oil,”
NYT Magazine
, Oct. 12, 1980.
“A merry”
;
“It’s stacked”
:
Small, quoted in
AA-S
, Sept. 15.
“Under the table”
:
DMN
, Sept. 15; Kahl, p. 154.
“This is the moment”
:
The description of Johnson’s moment of triumph is from
AA-S, DMN, FWS-T, HP
, Sept. 15.
“To look on”
:
Johnson aides, quoted in
FWS-T
, Sept. 16,
“A field day”
:
HP
, Sept. 15.

SOURCES

There are some 1,040 pages of court testimony, and I read them first. I supplemented this by interviews. Not many of the lawyers for the two sides are alive, but I talked to those who were—Gerald Weatherly, Thomas G. Corcoran, Luther E. Jones, Frank B. Lloyd, James H.
Rowe, Jr., Abe Fortas. I also spoke to the law partners of two of the lawyers most intimately involved. Edward A. Clark, partner of Everett Looney, was a key strategist in the
Johnson campaign; although he did not appear in court, he participated in the meetings, some of them in his home, on the court strategy. Emmett Shelton was not only the partner but the brother of Polk Shelton, Judge Raymond’s lawyer, and was himself intimately familiar with the cases. Clark and Shelton were also helpful to me in understanding the legal strategies involved. I also interviewed the only two Johnson aides to sit in—as notetakers—on these sessions:
Mary Rather and Walter Jenkins. I interviewed the single most important witness in the case, Luis Salas, and also relied on his manuscript, “Box 13.”

Although most of the oral histories taken by the Johnson Library from persons involved are self-serving, the oral history of William Robert Smith, the court-appointed Master in Chancery who presided over the hearing in Alice, Texas, is extremely valuable, because it provides his opinion of the case—an opinion he never wrote.

Among other sources were articles in the various newspapers that covered the hearings, not only the
AA-S, DMN, HP
and
HC
, but the
CCC-T
, the
Brownsville Herald
and the
Valley Evening Monitor
.

Books, articles and documents:

Dugger,
The Politician;
Evans and Novak,
Lyndon B. Johnson: The Exercise of Power
, Kahl,
Ballot Box 13;
Lynch,
The Duke of Duval;
Matthews,
San Antonio Lawyer;
Miller,
Lyndon;
Murphey,
Fortas;
Sherrill,
A Question of Judgment;
Steinberg,
Sam Johnson’s Boy
.

Ronnie Dugger, “Two Cheers for the FBI—Up and at ’Em on Box 13,”
Texas Observer
, Sept. 23, 1977. Abe Fortas, “The President, the Congress, and the Public: The Lyndon B. Johnson Presidency,” in Kenneth Thompson, ed.,
The Virginia Papers on the Presidency
, Vol. X, Lanham, Md., 1982; Marshall McNeil, “How Fortas Gave LBJ His Senatorial Start,”
Washington Daily News
, Aug. 3, 1965.

James M. Rowe, “The Mesquite Pendergast: George B. Parr—Second Duke of Duval” (unpublished manuscript), Ingleside, Tex., 1959–60.

Papers of Luther E. Jones.

Papers of Hugo Black.

Oral Histories:

Abe Fortas, Callan Graham, Josh H. Groce, Luther E. Jones, Stanley Marcus, Paul A. Porter, James H. Rowe, Jr., William Robert Smith.

Interviews:

Ernest Boyett, Kellis Dibrell, Lewis T. (“Tex”) Easley, Abe Fortas, Walter Jenkins, L. E. Jones, Robert W. Murphey, Mary Rather, James M. Rowe, Luis Salas, Coke Stevenson, Jr., Gerald L. Weatherly.

NOTES

(All dates 1948 unless otherwise indicated)

Stevenson’s feelings:
Boyett, Murphey, Stevenson, Jr., interviews; Graham OH.
“That whole week”
:
Graham OH.
Attorneys told him:
Boyett, Weatherly interviews; Stevenson, quoted in Dugger, p. 334; Kahl, p. 156.
“Just
couldn’t
”
:
Murphey interview.
“Fight right on”
:
Bolton interview.
Decision to ask for injunction:
Graham, Groce OHs; Boyett interview.
Picking a judge:
Groce OH.

Renfro’s trip:
CCC-T, DMN
, Sept. 16; Groce OH.

Judge Davidson’s hearing:
The basis for my description of this hearing is the transcript of it: Stevenson v. Tyson, Johnson et al., Civil No. 1640, United States District Court, Northern District, Texas, Fort Worth, Sept. 21–22, 1948 (Davidson, District Judge). This will be referred to hereafter as “DC Hearing transcript.” (Tom Tyson was chairman of the State Democratic Convention; Stevenson’s attorneys had named him
and other Democratic officials as co-defendants, to prevent them from certifying Johnson as the party’s nominee.) Also
AA-S, Brownsville Herald, CCC-T, DMN, FWS-T, HP, HC
, Sept. 21–24; Jones, Weatherly interviews.
“Now, gentlemen”
:
Davidson, DC Hearing transcript, Sept. 21, p. 3.
Fraud in Zapata and Duval as well:
Moody, DC Hearing transcript,
Sept. 21, pp. 5, 10, 11.
“Stuffed”
:
Moody, DC Hearing transcript, Sept. 21, p. 4.
Crooker’s arguments:
DC Hearing transcript, Sept. 21, pp. 17–38.
“Fatally defective”
:
Crooker, DC Hearing transcript, Sept. 21, p. 32.
“All of the irregularities”
:
Crooker, DC Hearing transcript, Sept. 21, pp. 32, 33.
But not in this court:
Crooker, DC Hearing transcript, Sept. 21, pp. 25, 26.
“They now seek”
:
Crooker, DC Hearing transcript, Sept. 21, p. 26.
“Solely”
:
Crooker, DC Hearing transcript, Sept. 21, p. 17.
“No jurisdiction”
:
Crooker, DC Hearing transcript, Sept. 21, pp. 18, 27.
“Under cover”
:
Moody, DC Hearing transcript, Sept. 21, p. 13.
“The Constitution provides”
:
Moody, DC Hearing transcript, pp. 13, 14. For a slightly different version of Moody’s statement, see
AA-S
and
CCC-T
, Sept. 22.

“The court wants to say”
:
Davidson, DC Hearing transcript, Sept. 21, p. 40.
“Public sentiment”
:
Davidson, quoted in
AA-S, CCC-T
, Sept. 22.

“Sure I’m for it”
:
Stevenson, quoted in
CCC-T
, Sept. 22.
“No comment”
:
Johnson, quoted in
HC
, Sept. 21;
AA-S
, Sept. 22.

Johnson’s conference with his attorneys:
Jones interview.

“I received”
:
Johnson statement, quoted in
CCC-T
, Sept. 22.
“Fight to the political death”
:
Steinberg, p. 267.
“They would rather”
:
Cofer, quoted in
HC
,
Sept. 22;
DMN
, Sept. 23.
“It was the defendant Johnson”
:
Moody, quoted in Kahl, p. 171.

Concealment of poll list:
Adams, DC Hearing transcript, Sept. 22, pp. 6–8; Brownlee, DC Hearing transcript, Sept. 22, pp. 14–15.
“Mr. Adams, did you notice”
:
Groce, DC Hearing transcript, Sept. 22, p. 10. “I call to Your Honor’s attention”: Groce, DC Hearing transcript, Sept. 22, p. 45.

7
changed to a
9:
Gardner, DC Hearing transcript, Sept. 22, p. 44.

Cerda testimony:
DC Hearing transcript, Sept. 22, pp. 27–30.
Salinas testimony:
DC Hearing transcript, Sept. 22, p. 26.
Martinez testimony:
DC Hearing transcript, Sept. 22, pp. 23–25.
Herrerra affidavit:
DC Hearing transcript, Sept. 22, pp. 39–40.
Soliz affidavit:
DC Hearing transcript, Sept. 22, pp. 33–37.
Gardner’s testimony about Soliz
affidavit:
DC Hearing transcript, Sept. 22, pp. 38–39.

“Luis Salas brought the returns in”
:
Price, DC Hearing transcript, Sept. 22, pp. 30–31. For more detail, see Price testimony in Master’s Hearing, Alice, transcript, pp. 212, 228–49.

Witnesses from Zapata:
Natividad Porras, Luvovico E. Vela, and there was also testimony from Truman Phelps, who had begun an investigation of the Zapata returns at Stevenson’s request. Their testimony is in DC Hearing transcript, Sept. 22, pp. 45–57.
Fraud
“upon their face”
:
Moody, DC Hearing transcript, Sept. 21, p. 5.
“Sufficient illegal votes”
;
“loaded”
:
Moody, DC Hearing transcript, Sept. 22, p. 62.

“Even glummer than”
:
Steinberg, p. 268.
Encounter in the corridor:
Dugger, p. 334.

If the
“allegations be true”
:
“Court’s Pronouncement on Motion to Dismiss,” DC Hearing transcript, Sept. 22, pp. 2–6. “Text of Judge Davidson’s Opinion Denying Johnson’s Dismissal Plea,”
FWS-T
, Sept. 23; Steinberg, p. 268. Davidson’s ruling also throws some light on Johnson’s later contention,
made over many years, that Davidson was biased against him. While preparing to make his ruling, the judge commented (p. 2), after noting that Johnson attorney John Cofer was a longtime friend, “along the same lines, of close ties and friendships, the respondent’s [Johnson’s] father-in-law in this case was one of the first clients to enter my office when I opened my door and for 20 years he remained a continuous client. So if this case is to be decided on
friendship, we don’t think the complainant would have very much standing in court, but … real justice is blind, she neither sees her enemies or hears her friends.”
Not
“one word of evidence”
:
Davidson, quoted in Banks, p. 93.
“It was the right and
privilege”
:
Davidson, DC Hearing transcript, Sept. 22, pp. 72–73.
“Throws such a cloud”
:
Davidson, DC Hearing transcript, Sept. 22, p. 73
“A sound principle”
:
CCC-T
, Sept. 23.
“Whenever I steal”
:
Davidson, DC Hearing transcript, Sept. 22, pp. 72–74. Davidson, quoted in
CCC-T
, Sept. 24.